aristocracy

• n. 貴族; 貴族支配; 上流階級; 貴族政治

語源はarm.-ist、最高の接尾辞。根源cracy、支配する、統治する、民主主義から、ハードから、強さ、力。

aristocracy

aristocracy: [16] Greek áristos meant ‘best’; hence aristocracy signifies, etymologically, ‘rule by the best’ (the suffix -cracy derives ultimately from Greek krátos ‘strength, power’, a relative of English hard). The term aristokratíā was used by Aristotle and Plato in their political writings, denoting ‘government of a state by those best fitted for the task’, and English writers perpetuated the usage when the word was borrowed from French aristocratie: Thomas Hobbes, for instance, wrote ‘Aristocracy is that, wherein the highest magistrate is chosen out of those that have had the best education’, Art of Rhetoric 1679.

But from the first the term was also used in English for ‘rule by a privileged class’, and by the mid 17th century this had begun to pass into ‘the privileged class’ itself, ‘the nobility’. The derived aristocrat appeared at the end of the 18th century; it was a direct borrowing of French aristocrate, a coinage inspired by the French Revolution.
=> hard

aristocracy (n.)

1560s, from Middle French aristocracie (Modern French aristocratie), from Late Latin aristocratia, from Greek aristokratia "government or rule of the best," from aristos "best" (originally "most fitting," from PIE *ar-isto-, superlative form of *ar- "to fit together;" see arm (n.1)) + kratos "rule, power" (see -cracy).

At first in a literal sense of "government by those who are the best citizens;" meaning "rule by a privileged class" (best-born or best-favored by fortune) is from 1570s and became paramount 17c. Hence, the meaning "patrician order" (1650s). In early use contrasted with monarchy; after French and American revolutions, with democracy.

1. members of the aristocracy

貴族メンバー

2.A century ago the aristocracy were truly lords of the earth.

1世紀前、貴族層は絶対的な支配者だった。

3.The highest-ranking members of the Spanish aristocracy are the grandees.

スペイン貴族の中で爵位が最も高いメンバーは大公.

4.Many members of the aristocracy were guillotined in France during the Revolution.

大革命期にフランスの多くの貴族が断頭台に送られた。

5.The trader and catcher may yet be a-mong our aristocracy .

黒奴の売人や黒奴の追っ手たちは、私たちの高官貴人の列にも横たわっているのではないでしょうか。